Posted on 02/27/2025 2:30:44 AM PST by CFW
The Supreme Court on Feb. 26 temporarily paused a federal judge’s order giving the Trump administration until midnight to resume $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court Wednesday night asking the court to halt the midnight deadline until the motion is resolved.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the order will remain on hold until the Supreme Court weighs in more fully on the matter.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month directing both USAID and the State Department to restore funding for contracts that predated Jan. 20 but were frozen by the Trump administration.
The plaintiffs challenging the freeze told the judge that the government was slow in fulfilling the order, leading Ali to order the payments to resume by midnight on Wednesday.
In the motion, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote that the court’s 11:59 p.m. “30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goalposts.”
“It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” Harris wrote.
She asked the Supreme Court for an immediate ruling halting the midnight deadline until the court can resolve the motion. Harris said the government couldn’t feasibly resume payments within the window of time given.
“Worse, this order exposes the government to the risk of contempt proceedings and other sanctions,” she said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied on Feb. 26 the appeal the Department of Justice had previously filed minutes after the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump has moved to pause foreign aid payments amid efforts to reform USAID, which has resulted in numerous lawsuits filed by affected groups.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it was eliminating more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in federal assistance worldwide. Few contracts of U.S. development and foreign humanitarian aid would remain following the cuts.
According to a memo detailing the plans, officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.” The administration will announce more changes in how the State Department and USAID deliver foreign assistance, it said.
On inauguration day, Trump ordered what was described as a 90-day program-by-program review to determine which foreign aid programs should be preserved by an administration that is prioritizing “America First” objectives, while freezing foreign assistance nearly overnight.
The majority of USAID’s staff have been put on leave or fired.
SCOTUS ping!
Chief Justice John Roberts pauses judge’s order for Trump admin to pay foreign aid contractors by midnight
By U.S. Code, USAID is under the direct foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State, and therefore, the President of the United States. Secretary of State Rubio previously terminated the Administrator of USAID and declared himself to be the Acting Administrator.
President Trump just has to say that the current spending is not aligned with his "foreign policy" objectives and is suspending all aid until he can issue new foreign policy guidance to USAID.
He's not obligated to spend all of the money that Congress authorized and appropriated for foreign aid if that money goes against his foreign policy initiatives.
I'm no lawyer, but I think this district judge's ruling goes against everything written in Marbury v. Madison regarding the Court's intrusion into the discretionary powers of the President.
From the Supreme Court: Marbury v. Madison (1803), some specifics relevant to the judicial attacks on President Trump:
74
By the constitution of the United States, the president is invested with certain important political powers, in the exercise of which he is to use his own discretion, and is accountable only to his country in his political character, and to his own conscience. To aid him in the performance of these duties, he is authorized to appoint certain officers, who act by his authority and in conformity with his orders.75
In such cases, their acts are his acts; and whatever opinion may be entertained of the manner in which executive discretion may be used, still there exists, and can exist, no power to control that discretion. The subjects are political. They respect the nation, not individual rights, and being entrusted to the executive, the decision of the executive is conclusive. The application of this remark will be perceived by adverting to the act of congress for establishing the department of foreign affairs. This officer, as his duties were prescribed by that act, is to conform precisely to the will of the president. He is the mere organ by whom that will is communicated. The acts of such an officer, as an officer, can never be examinable by the courts.76
But when the legislature proceeds to impose on that officer other duties; when he is directed peremptorily to perform certain acts; when the rights of individuals are dependent on the performance of those acts; he is so far the officer of the law; is amenable to the laws for his conduct; and cannot at his discretion sport away the vested rights of others.77
The conclusion from this reasoning is, that where the heads of departments are the political or confidential agents of the executive, merely to execute the will of the president, or rather to act in cases in which the executive possesses a constitutional or legal discretion, nothing can be more perfectly clear than that their acts are only politically examinable. But where a specific duty is assigned by law, and individual rights depend upon the performance of that duty, it seems equally clear that the individual who considers himself injured has a right to resort to the laws of his country for a remedy.99
It is scarcely necessary for the court to disclaim all pretensions to such a jurisdiction. An extravagance, so absurd and excessive, could not have been entertained for a moment. The province of the court is, solely, to decide on the rights of individuals, not to inquire how the executive, or executive officers, perform duties in which they have a discretion. Questions, in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court.
-PJ
I hope Roberts is on The List.
Since the entire federal district court system was established by legislative law and the executive branch (which is specifically mentioned as being one person, the president) the executive branch is acting in accordance with the WORDS in the Constitution. The thousands of rogue, pissant federal judges have zero Constitutionally authorized oversight impact upon the executive branch. Zero.
It’s time for our politicians to face reality. The USA is Bankrupt.
We are bleeding profusely and will soon die unless this bleeding it stopped.
In providing emergency care, one of the first steps is to control bleeding: Apply direct pressure to any visible bleeding wounds.
Trump is applying that pressure or the patient will die.
The government is fooling us by hiding the extent of the problem by adding Social Security and Medicare restricted funds to the general budget. The Social Security and Medicare taxes represent 35% of total revenue.
In fiscal year (FY) 2024, the US government collected $4.92 trillion in revenue. Of that, $1.72 trillion was Social Security and Medicare taxes. That leaves $3.2 trillion left to pay interest on the debt, for defense, snd to tune the government.
To put things in perspective, if the interest on the $37 trillion in debt reaches 10%, it would be $3.7 trillion, equalling 100% of our revenue. That leaves nothing for defense or to run the government.
Add to that the fact that annual Social Security and Medicare payouts are now exceeding taxes, and are running a deficit. All of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds have been lent to the general fund and spent. That means that the annual deficit in these funds must come from the general fund.
Unless the bleeding is stopped immediately, everything will collapse, as the patient will die. No Social Security or Medicare payments, no government handouts, no defense, no funds to run the prisons, ..... nothing.
This is urgent as we are in crisis mode and heading rapidly toward death.
Only in America can you go to a judge and complain that the government isn’t stealing money fast enough.
What list and what did he do wrong this time? It seems even when he does something we agree with, many are on his a@@.
Does he vote agaist our interests that often?
I guess I’ll have to go research
Epstein list coming today?
It’ll be a big “That’s IT?” When it’s released
There’s no bombshells in it
Trump is eliminating more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in federal assistance worldwide. Few contracts of US development and “humanitarian aid” giveaways would remain. A memo detailing the plans, noted officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.”
The majority of Biden-era USAID staff have been put on leave or fired.
“I hope Roberts is on The List.”
I’d guess that there’s about a 75% chance he’s been a recipient of these funds for a very long time. It probably started with his Obamacare vote.
But shortly after the Trump administration formally asked the high court for emergency relief, the appeals court declined the Trump administration's request to pause the district court's decision. The three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit said Ali's orders could not be appealed."
----
"The three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit said Ali's orders could not be appealed.""
This part is what shocked me.
Their order can't be appealed??!!! Excuse me??? Of course it can. I would love to see Roberts issue a strong Order smacking down these lower courts and telling them "stay in your lane".
Of course, Roberts has a history of being a squish but the fact that he even accepted the Trump administration's emergency request and acted upon it, gives me hope.
I'm glad Trump's attorneys were one step ahead of these judges and had already filed the emergency request with SCOTUS.
“barrett is heading in that direction as well.”
Barrett started out bad. I’d love to know who recommended that elitist liberal bitch to Trump 45.
If Roberts didn’t want to intervene at all, he wouldn’t have issued the stay and tell everyone ‘hold on, let’s take a look at this before the money goes out and is unrecoverable’.
Thanks for the ping!
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